Most entrepreneurs fail. Some fail more than once. Some fail big before going on huge success. Moving through failure does not make you a bad entrepreneur. It actually gives you the tools to become better at business. Many people are tempted to look at their failures as a horrid stain on their professional lives when, in fact, they often serve as a strength. Here’s why.
Failure is everywhere.
There are endless stories about failure and what entrepreneurs did to overcome it. The front page of Entrepreneur.com is filled with the failures and successes of people like Tony Robbins or Elon Musk, and those posts get some of the biggest page view totals.
Musk is flirting with failure all the time. He has his share of doubters and critics who don’t think he’s going to succeed with his Gigafactory or Solar City for instance. People are still pretty skeptical SpaceX will ever really make it to Mars or that Musk will even deliver Tesla’s Model 3 shipments on time.
You don’t see often stories about people who failed, shied away from opportunity, then just crawled into a cave. The oft-cited, iconic lessons on failure from Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison and Walt Disney still hold true. One of the most famous authors known today started from a place of unemployment and depression –- Harry Potter creator, J.K. Rowling.
Who hasn’t had a poor interview, lost sale, negative review or missed opportunity? They can cause a range of reactions — even emotional or physical pain. Some people get a stomach ache and dive into a hole of self-pity and doubt. Others get defensive and look for every excuse to justify the loss. People who succeed in times of failure know how to view the situation, overcome their fears, and take back control.
The experience of failure changes your interpretation of the world. It can distort your perceptions, create conscious and subconscious feelings of negativity, and make your future seem unattainable. Only you can change your internal experience from fear and pessimism to optimism.
Take control over failure to change your future.
Before trying to see a failure as a strength in the context of entrepreneurship, you need to conquer any negative inner monologue you’ve got going on. If you’re struggling to see the good in…